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'Downton Abbey' Season 2 premiere doubles PBS ratings

Monday's Season 2 premiere of the tart British period satire averaged 4.2 million total viewers, according to Nielsen. And that doesn't include viewers who watched later station replays or on a DVR.

That was double PBS' usual prime-time average and 18% higher than "Downton's" first-season average, according to a press release from WGBH-TV, the Boston PBS-member station that presents the series as part of the "Masterpiece Classic" brand. NBC Universal coproduces the series.

It's also higher than the numbers for some other "prestige" dramas, including AMC's "Mad Men," which averaged fewer than 3 million viewers in its fourth season (it returns for Season 5 later this year).